Martini, Simone

(active 1315-1344)

    One of the most important pupils of Duccio, instrumental in the development of the International Style. Simone Martini is known to have assisted his master in the execution of the Maestà Altarpiece (1308-1311; Siena, Museo dell' Opera del Duomo) and to have been active in Siena, Naples, Sicily, Assisi, and the papal court of Avignon in Southern France. His first documented commission is the Maestà for the Council Chamber in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (1311-1317; partially repainted in 1321), meant to inspire the rulers of the city who convened in this room to engage in wise government. In 1317, Martini was invited by Robert D'Anjou, king of Naples, to work for him at his court. There he painted the altarpiece St. Louis of Toulouse (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte), of Robert's brother, to commemorate his canonization in that year and to assert divine sanction of Anjou rule. In c. 1328 Martini was in Assisi painting frescoes in the Montefiore Chapel in the Lower Church of San Francesco. The commission came from the Franciscan Cardinal Gentile Partino da Montefiore who had close ties with the House of Anjou as he had negotiated the attainment of the Hungarian throne for Robert's nephew, Charles I Carobert. These frescoes depict the life of St. Martin of Tours, who lived in the 4th century and to whom the Church of San Martino ai Monti, Rome, Cardinal Montefiore's titular church, is dedicated. Among Martini's altarpieces are the polyptych he created for the Church of Santa Caterina in Pisa (Pisa, Museo Nazionale di San Matteo), called the Pisa Polyptych (1319), and the Annunciation for the Cathedral of Siena (1333; Florence, Uffizi), this last work with the assistance of Lippo Memmi who rendered the figures of Sts. Ansanus and Margaret on the outer leaves. In 1335, Martini went to France to work in the papal court of Avignon where he spent the rest of his life. There he befriended Petrarch, who was also working for the papacy. In c. 1340-1344, Martini executed the Road to Calvary (Paris, Louvre), originally part of a polyptych depicting the Passion of Christ. In the same time period, he received the commission from Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi to fresco the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Doms in Avignon. These frescoes included a Blessing Christ and a Madonna of Humility that have deteriorated considerably. The sinopie for these two scenes are now housed in the Papal Palace in Avignon. As the French papal court was frequented by delegates and other individuals from various realms, Martini's Sienese visual vocabulary soon spread to other parts of Europe where it developed into what is aptly called the International Style.